


Hiding

by thebuttercupsareblind



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Sburb/Sgrub Sessions, BECAUSE IM A PROCRASTIONATING ASS, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, F/F, M/M, Slow Burn, but rosemary won’t be background don’t worry, discontinued, flashstepping is a thing, hopefully, kanaya wont turn up for a bit sorry, the trolls know some human terminology, yall know how bro is
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-17
Packaged: 2019-02-03 06:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12742848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebuttercupsareblind/pseuds/thebuttercupsareblind
Summary: In which Karkat Vantas was never told that when he went to Earth humans he’d be running for his goddamn life from humans.





	1. Chapter 1

A scream of absolute terror ripped through the air, startling nearby birds and other small creatures. Then the footsteps started, breaking sticks and crunching undergrowth. Two figures sprinted under the trees of a forest, tired and wounded, but still desperately fighting for their lives. The two figures - both young trolls - dodged trees and jumped logs in a desperate attempt to get away from their persuers, who had disappeared behind them somewhere. Though they knew their hunters would strike as soon as they let their guard.

The moonlight barely made it through the trees, leaving the trolls in darkness. If not for their good eyes, they would have not been able to get as far as they could. If they were human, they wouldn’t have made it half way. Though now, they were starting to wear down. One of the trolls slowed, and after a moment of hesitance, the other did too. They looked at one another, before one of the trolls tried to speak, voice trembling slightly.

“Shit...Karkat...”

The other troll’s ears pricked up as soon as the familiarity of his name reached them, but found that the other could not find more to say. He hunched over, hands on his knees, to regain the breath that had been stolen from him while running.

Karkat had never been so scared in his life.

After moments of wheezing, he stood up to address his companion. Her blind eyes seemed to stare into his soul, even if he couldn’t see them behind her red glasses.

“Terezi, I...” Karkat wanted to yell, to raise his voice, just like old times, but knew he shouldn’t, “do you think-“

Then the gunshots began.

The bullets started hitting the trees, started getting more accurate, started coming closer. Terezi grabbed Karkat’s sleeve and pushed him into a running start before starting to run herself. Karkat had not been ready, so he stumbled, loudly exclaiming a curse.

“Fucking _move_!” Terezi snapped, giving Karkat another push.

He suppressed a retort and carried on, narrowly avoiding a tree. The gunshots continued, and Karkat managed to get even more terrified than he was before, though he would never admit it. With every gunshot, he was afraid that eventually one would hit him or Terezi.

He was afraid for a good reason.

The sound hit him first, making his ears feel like they were going to bleed. Then the pain hit him, coursing through his leg; it was worse than anything he had felt before. Then came the realisation, hitting him almost as hard as the bullet had.

Terezi had noticed it as well. There was no doubt that she smelled the ‘candy’ red blood that belonged to Karkat. He would’ve turned to see if she had been hurt too, but then the panic hit him as the pain started to make him gasp.

Through the tears starting to form in Karkat’s eyes and the pain, he didn’t notice as Terezi grabbed his sleeve and forced him over to a part of the forest with a lot more foliage and underbrush, hopefully limiting the small amount of visibility the humans had of them.

Hissing with pain, Karkat fell and landed on the ground with a thud. He couldn’t stop his body from writhing - the pain was powerful. The air he’d had was gone, leaving him gasping as Terezi looked over him with her blind eyes. For the first time in his pitiful life, Karkat couldn’t even muster up a curse word as Terezi started dragging him under a large, nearby bush.

Karkat winced as leaves and branches poked and prodded as his skin, nearly taking off a fucking eye multiple times.  
“Stop wriggling,” Terezi let Karkat go and lay down next to him, ears pricked.

“It fucking _burns_ ,” Karkat hissed, trying to grab at his leg without getting poked more by the bush.

Red blood pooled out of the wound, staining his already-dirty pants and the ground. The pain was searing; his vision was wavering like a sea of pain. If not for the fact that they were being hunted, Karkat would’ve screamed.

Being hunted didn’t stop him from making pained whimpers, though. He was fucking bleeding out into a bush, in the dark, on fucking Earth, while being hunted by humans, with a troll who had lost the weapon she was so good with.

Yeah.

At some point, Terezi had put her hand over Karkat’s mouth, stifling his groans. He couldn’t remember if she had place her hand on his mouth recently, or when he had started making sounds, but it didn’t matter. Under any other circumstance, he would’ve bitten her hand, or licked it, or something, but his mind was starting to get too foggy to do anything.

But not so foggy that he couldn’t hear the humans.

Out of all the humans that had pursued them, these ones seemed to be the loudest. Maybe less experience. As they walked, they cracked sticks and leaves. As they talked, their voices rose in fear and desperation. As they shot, their guns were loud and lacked the silencers that so many had used before.

Yet they were no less deadly. Surely they would see the red blood that had gushed from Karkat’s wound as Terezi dragged him under the bush? Surely they would notice the faint rustling as he shook his head to keep himself from falling unconscious, or was that Terezi, softly shaking his head to keep him awake?

Yeah, no. They fucking walked past. They just walked past, moonlight glinting off of their visors, black boots thudding against the ground and voices still ridden with fear.

Karkat struggled to turn onto his side slightly, Terezi’s filthy hands still on his mouth, to watch the humans walk by. Holy shit. They’d seen stupid humans before, but these were the most idiotic. They missed the trail of blood leading right to the bush!

He wasn’t complaining, though. Hearing the humans walk away was practically music to his foggy mind; it kept him awake for a little longer.

Slowly, Terezi pulled her hand away from Karkat’s mouth and used it to crawl out of the bush, laughing weakly. As Karkat turned and started to drag himself out of the damned thing, Terezi’s laughter started to turn into cackling.

“Those fuckers actually left!” Terezi grinned triumphantly, “now we can actually get some peace and quiet for once!”

Karkat dragged his weak body over to her, one hand on his wound in a feeble attempt to stop the blood. He opened his mouth to say something, maybe remind her that he had, in fact, been shot and was _bleeding onto the fucking ground_ , but all that came out was a whimper of pain. Terezi did acknowledge the sound with a small flick of her ear, then turned to him.

“Come on, Karkat, not even a little laugh for our victory?” Terezi looked down at him grinning. When he did not answer, she followed up with a simple, “aw, come on. We’ll get you back and then-“

_Crack._

Terezi stiffened as the sound seemingly echoed through the forest, leaving the atmosphere eerily quiet apart from Karkat’s ragged breathing and moaning.

“That was you, right?” Terezi asked, mouth open, probably in an attempt to smell and taste the area better.

Karkat shook his head, then added a rasping, “no,” pulling his injured leg close to his body. He would’ve been more scared, but the fogginess in his head stopped him from being so. If there was anything coming for them, there was no way he’d be able to even attempt to defend himself. The burning in his leg rose above everything else.

Terezi stepped closer to Karkat, almost looking like she was protecting him. Her fists was balled, ready to lash out at a moment’s notice. She didn’t have her cane anymore, but that sure as hell didn’t mean she wouldn’t try to fight back.

“M-maybe is was...” Karkat drew in a sharp breath, “Earth creature...”

Terezi hummed doubtfully, but lowered her guard just that little bit. The two had been running from humans as soon as they got to Earth, so of course they were jumpy. But fuck, not everything was bad, right? It was probably just some Earth creature that wandered through the forest eating foliage, right?

Karkat turned his head, scanning the forest around him. It was hard to see; his tears stained his vision and it went dark more than once, but he couldn’t seem to see anything. It was just dark and lonely. Dark and lonely.

Though, his hand was covered in his own blood. He had stopped it for a moment but now it was hard to stop it from flowing through his hands.

“Terezi,” Karkat croaked, “fucking help me.”

After a small moment of hesitance, Terezi grasped Karkat’s shirt and helped him to stand up, albeit shakily. His limbs felt heavy, threatening to only drag him back down onto the cold ground. The only reason he didn’t fall was because Terezi had wrapped an arm around his shoulders, supporting him enough.

Slowly, the two began to walk. Karkat wasn’t sure where they would go - he had forgotten the direction they had come from already - but he sure as hell wanted to get out of the damn forest. Too many bad things happened in forests.

And damn, when they said Earth was a good planet, Karkat never thought that he would be bleeding out onto the lame grass, while being hunted by the lame humans, on their lame fucking planet.

Terezi made a comment that Karkat didn’t catch despite the eerie silence; probably something about justice or losing her cane or whatever. Only after a few moments did he realise that her body had tensed up, more than it was before, and that her ears were up and quivering.

She ground her feet into the ground and Karkat made an annoyed grunt. They were supposed to keep moving! He weakly tugged against her shirt, but she did not acknowledge it. Frustration bubbled into Karkat’s chest as he tried again, to no avail.

Terezi mumbled something about Karkat being an idiot, then lead him to a tree and made him lean on it. He winced as his wound brushed against the rough, sharp bark, undoubtedly leaving a red mark on the tree.

“Don’t move,” Terezi warned, stepping away.

“I can’t fucking move, don’t you worry about that,” Karkat rasped, sliding down the tree slightly.

Terezi made a small cackle, then said, “I know.”

Karkat watched as she braced herself, loudly sniffing the air. Whatever she had stopped for, it must’ve gotten her tense. He had probably missed a sound or something as he tried to keep consciousness.

Karkat smacked his own head on the tree softly, keeping his eyes open while watching Terezi.

She spoke, and though Karkat couldn’t hear well enough to recognize what she was saying, she seemed to be dismissing whatever she had heard with a small flick of her wrist. It was probably just something like the goddamned wind.

Terezi turned towards Karkat and spoke, more clearly now.

“I hope everyone else went back to where we got separated,” Terezi said, a hint of annoyance in her tone, “that would be the sm-“

A flash of something plus a loud smack later and she’s on the ground.

Karkat doesn’t get the time to register what’s happening until Terezi stands up, only to get punched in the face again.

Okay, here comes the fear. Again.

Whatever just punched Terezi in the face is moving extremely fast. Like super fucking fast. Fast like Nepeta’s pouncing or Vriska’s dice falling, fast like falling, fast like Eridan’s breakups.

Fast like a bullet?

No, too big, didn’t leave a hole in Terezi’s head. Over the panic, Karkat stumbled forward. Maybe to help Terezi, maybe to help himself. Either way, it was a bad idea. The terrible pain that had coursed through Karkat’s wound when he had realized he’d been shot returned, forcing him down into the ground.

Terezi gasped out something, or maybe nothing at all, as she scrambled to her feet. Karkat hoped that she would help him up, but instead she stayed put, stubbornly raising her fists in some lame attempt at intimidation. She couldn’t even see what she was trying to intimidate, though neither did Karkat.

There was a small amount of hope that whatever it was that had harmed Terezi had left, but that small amount of pathetic hope was absolutely crushed as something whistled past Karkat. That hope was further crushed, as in absolutely wrecked, when the thing came back again.

Terezi made a sound Karkat never thought he’d hear from her. A wail of...pain? Fear? Anger? Reached Karkat’s ears. The fear swelling in Karkat’s stupid mutant blood was so overwhelming that it was almost painful, and he tried to crawl somewhere. Anywhere.

Mr. Fast Thing was going to have none of that, apparently.

There was a thud, and then a sickening crack as Terezi was pushed into the same tree that Karkat had been leaning on. As she slid down, unconscious, a small line of teal blood was left on there.

A sob built up in Karkat’s throat as he started frantically clawing at the ground, not really going anywhere now. Grass gave way to dirt, and now his nails scored marks into it. He didn’t want to die. At least not today. Maybe tomorrow, but not now. He’d promised to do so many things that he needed to do.

He’d promised Terezi that once they hopefully got back to Alternia he’d help her with her shitty trails with her weird dragon plushes. He’d promised Nepeta that they’d hang out more, and a bunch of other sappy shit that Karkat’s mind couldn’t remember. Point was, he’d promised too much.

What seemed to be hours passed, though in reality it was only a few seconds. Karkat felt like he was going to choke on his own sobs.

Until something hit his head, and then darkness was the only thing Karkat could choke on. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> karkat is very confused

Everything was dark, and grey. But Karkat realized he was not dead. Holy shit. His body was sore and his leg hurt like hell, but he was alive. 

Holy fucking shit.

Karkat drew in a large breath just to make sure and savored the relief that flooded to his head. He was almost about to cry with relief, because goddamn, he was alive! He could wriggle his fingers and he could wriggle his toes and he could twitch his ears and feel his breathing and he was still very much alive!

He noticed that his head started to throb, but he barely even cared for that. He was still alive and was never happier to be. Though he had no idea where he was, damn...surely he could take a moment to appreciate not being dead on this hell planet.

After that moment was over, Karkat pushed himself up and rubbed his eyes. This place was some kind of block, and now Karkat realized that the walls had been painted a dark pink color. The block (room?) seemed like someone definitely lived...

...Oh.

This had to be a human’s block.

Karkat had been placed on top of something soft, an also soft cover over him. He tried to remember what it was called but now he was starting to feel the ache that spread around his head. Fuck.

He had too many questions spinning around in his aching mind and most of those he didn’t want answered. He just needed to find Terezi and escape the imminent doom that was a human. If he did find a human, he’d at least try to fight. 

Slowly, Karkat wriggled out of the cover and looked for a way out. He could see that there were some curtains which obscured light. A window, maybe. Whether obscuring the window was a way to try and hide them somehow or not, Karkat wasn’t going to punch them or anything. They’d probably shatter, and a noise like that would easily alert the humans that he was awake. 

Gingerly, he slid off of the soft platform, wincing as a small amount of pain made it’s way up Karkat’s injured leg. Oh.

Someone had wrapped a bandage around the wound. 

It only displayed a small amount of red blood, which was strange considering how much the wound was bleeding. Which meant someone had to have been changing the bandage over. Which meant the humans wanted him alive...

For what, he didn’t know. And he didn’t want to know.

This was a fucked up situation.

He tried to stand up and nearly fell over. Nearly. Karkat’s head felt foggy, along with the aching, but no way in hell that was gonna stop him from an escape attempt. 

A small groan escaped Karkat’s throat as he rubbed his eyes. Black spots danced around in his vision, and he needed to rid of them. He needed every second he could to find some way out of this hellhole without human intervention.

His eyes darted around the block, trying to know his surroundings as quickly as possible. There was a desk in front of him, books left neatly on it. Underneath he could see wires peeking out that connected to nothing, so there had probably been something there before. He remembered something about humans having their own inferior version of a husktop. Maybe that was a possibility?  
No matter. He didn’t have time to worry about pathetic human possessions.

Taking another moment to make sure his head wasn’t foggy, Karkat wandered around the block. If this was what a regular human’s hive looked like, it was incredibly boring. 

However, he did notice a handle on one of the walls.

He wasn’t sure where it led, and there was no light underneath it, but it sure was a lead, right? He quickly crossed over to the handle and gave it an experimental twist, jolting a little when it opened to reveal..

Clothes.

And they were surprisingly colorful. They were all different, sporting different shades of pink and black and white and...it was a lot. There was no single sign on them, either. Some of the clothes sported simple icons, some sported strange patterns, and some had nothing. Karkat found himself staring more than he intended to, and backed up quickly. Unless humans found their clothes so precious that Karkat could blackmail one with it, they were useless to him.

He continued his investigation, now poking and prodding at the books. He tried to read one of them, but he couldn’t understand what language it was being written in, as well as the fact that it was quite dark.

Frustration started to bubble in Karkat’s chest and he suppressed a growl. For all he knew there was some secret area in the room where he was being monitored. Watched intently instead of fighting like the cowardly things humans were. Cowardly but lethal.

Karkat sighed and tried to lean onto the desk.

That failed.

He’d somehow miscalculated the distance between himself and the desk, so he ended up falling and smashing his chin onto the desk. Pain flared in Karkat’s chin and made its way to his head, forcing a yelp of pain out of his mouth. Even though he pressed his hands against his mouth to try and stifle any other noise, the damage was done. His chin had made a loud bang against the desk, and his cry had been loud as well.

Scrambling to his feet, Karkat braced himself, ears pricked for any sign of a human. Soon enough, he heard footsteps from outside the room, quick and soft, getting louder at the minute.

Karkat rubbed his head, which was still throbbing from hitting his head against the desk, and looked around for any weapon. The books could work, but they were not hard enough to work as a viable weapon, so his fists would have to do.

A door opened, and he froze.

A human had opened a way into the room, not swinging outwards, but sliding to the side. Light flooded the room, and a human walked in. Karkat scrambled away from the door, hastily crawling over the soft thing (which he now remembered to be a bed) so he could put it in between him and the human who had walked in.

The human didn’t seem to be fully grown. Their hair was a strange white, and they sported a pair of shades. Their face showed no emotion, and they sipped at a bottle of yellow liquid. Karkat tried to put his most intimidating face on, though he had no idea if it worked or not. The human stared at Karkat, and Karkat stared back, trying not to let his breathing become ragged.

“‘Sup.”

Karkat managed to be both confused and terrified at the same time. 

“So, you’re awake? That’s cool, bro. Coolest thing all day,” The human took another sip from the bottle, then continued, “I hope you didn’t mess something up in here, this is my sister’s room. She’s kinda grumpy about you being in here but she’s also kinda excited because man, real aliens, in this house.”

The human didn’t seem to be hostile, but Karkat wasn’t taking any chances. This could easily be a way of making him lower his guard. 

“You ain’t gonna talk? Cool, cool, the other one didn’t either. Can kinda understand why. Humans have fuckin’ got it out for you, man. Except us, obviously, ‘cause we probably would’ve killed you already.” 

When Karkat didn’t respond, the human shrugged.

“I know you can understand me, dude, I heard you talkin’ to the other one the other night. And you were bleeding, so damn,” the human made a small laugh.

Karkat flinched away from the human. So he had been the one who had punched Terezi in the face and kicked Karkat in the head? 

The human seemed to notice Karkat’s fear and raised both hands, “Chill. We ain’t gonna lay a hand on you. Well, maybe the cat will, but he’s pretty harmless. Dirk’s kinda intimidating but he won’t hurt you. And, uh, you can stay in here if you want. My sis might be annoyed but she’s not going to like, forcefully drag you out of this room. The worse thing that comes out of this is that she has to read her weird vampire books and be emo outside of this room.”

Karkat didn’t move. So this human was a blathering idiot, huh?

“You got a name, dude?” The human asked. Karkat didn’t respond; his name could probably be used in some way that would only harm him. The human waited, then added, “I’m Dave. Dave Strider. The fucking coolest dude in this house.”

Karkat was starting to fidget, uncomfortable. A growl rumbled in his throat in some kind of weird attempt to get the human away. Of course that didn’t fucking work. The human just laughed, readjusting his shades. Why was the stupid thing wearing fucking shades inside his own hive, anyway?

Just when he thought the human might leave, he started talking again.

“Also, there some rules, ‘cause y’know, we don’t want you getting looked at by the public and then having the government on our asses,” The human, Dave, didn’t bother waiting for a response this time, “uh, just, don’t go outside. Especially in the day. From what the government said, you guys are nocturnal, but the shitty gov has lied to us a lot lately. That’s the main rule.”

Karkat squirmed. What, so he was being held captive in this shitty place?

“Other than that, it’s just, you can come out of this room if you want. There’s food and stuff. Wait, shit, are you hungry? Damn, you probably are. What do aliens eat? Shit, I hope you like pizza, because that’s the only thing we have right now. If you don’t like pizza, then damn, at least I tried. Wait here a sec.”

Then, to Karkat’s sweet sweet relief, the human went out of the block, sliding the wall back. He noticed a small indent on the wall. It was some kind of weird handle that blended in with the wall so much that he hadn’t noticed it before. Fuck, humans were so confusing.

But he was glad the Dave human hadn’t hurt him.

And that he’d also left the weird door thing open slightly.

Karkat crawled back over the bed, trying his hardest not to make any noise, and crept towards the sliver of light that slipped into he block. He peered out of it, looking for any sort of way out.

He could see that the floor out there was wood, which meant it creaked. That meant Karkat would have to take the time to figure out where it creaked. He could also see another human, sitting on a couch. The human seemed unamused, and they were reading a book not unlike the ones in the block Karkat was in. They had the same strange, white hair that the Dave human did, and strange bright purple eyes.

Maybe this was the ‘sis’ the Dave human had mentioned?

Whatever.

Karkat couldn’t see an exit where he was looking, though he did make note of the large windows that showed the way outside. It was dark out, but not too dark, which meant it was probably just after the stupid Earth sun set, or the sun was just rising. It was probably just setting, because if there was one defining feature about humans that Karkat had learned, it was that they really didn’t like waking up until after their sun had risen.

He could hear some footsteps and soft rustling which had to be the Dave human, unless there was another one around (the Dave human mentioned a ‘Dirk’, so there probably was). Karkat almost wanted to go out there, but like HELL he’d go face to face with two humans at once. 

“You wanna come out, dude?”

The Dave human was right. There.

Karkat tried to stifle a small gasp as he scampered away (though some noise did escape his mouth) and stumbled as pain shot up his leg. He almost fell onto the ground, but he luckily made it in time to grab a part of the bed instead and pull himself over. Falling onto the ground in front of a human? That would’ve been fucking embarrassing, and leaving Karkat vulnerable.

The Dave human still didn’t seem hostile, and was holding a plate of- holy shit, was that a fucking flavor disk?

“Wasn’t sure what you wanted to I kinda grabbed whatever,” the Dave human poked the disk, “the other one ate this, so I fuckin’ hope you will, too. John would kill me if I said you’d starved to death.”

It was at this moment, when the beautiful, beautiful smell reached Karkat, that he realized how hungry he really was. He felt his stomach grumble, almost screaming for something to eat because damn, he couldn’t remember the last time he fucking ate.

Yet he still didn’t move. Not until the Dave human placed the plate onto the desk and started to move away. Karkat started to move, but froze when he realized that the human had not left completely.

“Do you want me to tell you what’s going on and shit? Why you’re here and why we haven’t ‘culled’ you, as the other one said?” The Dave human’s head tilted slightly, “because you probably want to know. I’d want to know. Anyone would want to know, really, unless they were really weird, like an old roasted tomato left on a sidewalk.”

Karkat could barely understand a word that came out of the human’s mouth as he slowly slunk back into his original position.

“Okay, cool, whatever. Not talking? Fucking fine. I’m still gonna tell you what the heck is up, though,” The human paused, then added, “in the morning. We all gotta hit the hay.”

Karkat just wanted the human to leave him alone. Just leave. Just leave. He wanted to find Terezi and fucking leave. Whatever the human wanted from Karkat, he wasn’t going to give it.   
Unfortunately, the human just kept talking.

“Man, you are gonna lose your mind when you fucking hear all the shit that’s been going down. Actually, don’t, but man, the fuck. It’d help if you or the other one fucking told us about shit, but you can stay quiet if you want man, but damn. I’m gonna totally give it to you straight. I’m gonna totally whack out all that sweet info...”

The Dave human paused, and then added loudly, “in fucking rap form!”

Karkat bit back a hiss and cringed away at the loud statement. Maybe this was his plan. He was going to fucking TALK Karkat to death. He was just going to talk and talk. Or Karkat would die from starvation because the human wouldn’t fucking leave and he really wanted to eat that disk.

His thoughts were interrupted after footsteps loudly stomped towards the block after the Dave human’s outburst of wanting to say shit in rap, followed by a loud yell of, “DO NOT!”

The tiniest smirk grew on the Dave human’s face.

“Well, that’s it I guess, I’m gonna go submit myself to the endless void of sleep. Don’t break shit.”

With a final wave and a shutting of the way out, the human was finally gone. Fucking finally.

In his absence, Karkat sighed with relief, and even that couldn’t show how much he was relieved. He wasn’t dead, and the human was gone, plus the human had showed him how to get out of the room, so now he just needed an escape plan. What did the Dave human say again? He was going to submit himself to sleep?

Hopefully that meant any other humans would go to sleep as well.

Karkat crawled over the bed and nearly ran over to the food, practically drooling by the time he got there. If he wasn’t so hungry, he’d have worried over whether it was poisoned or not, but fuck, it smelled so good. Every slice seemed to have something different on it, but when Karkat started to eat them, they all tasted so great.

It took all of his willpower not to plonk the whole thing into his mouth and swallow it whole. 

Holy shit. It was almost too good.

After eating the best thing he’d had since he’d gotten to Earth, Karkat checked what was going on outside the block.

He couldn’t see any humans, but he could hear two loudly talking somewhere, getting softer by the second. One of them had to be the Dave human, judging by the tone. Karkat’s ears twitched as small clicks echoed through the hive, light leaving certain areas as they happened.

If they were getting ready to sleep, all Karkat had to do was wait. 

He climbed onto the bed and simply lay there. Frowning. Thinking. He’d been in a human’s hive before, but it was a lot smaller than this. This hive was a lot bigger, and that was just what Karkat could see from the block. Maybe a bigger hive meant more escape opportunities.

But he wasn’t sure where Terezi was. The Dave human had mentioned another ‘one’ multiple times - and that had to be her, right? Unless it was some secret, infuriating double meaning word...thing...fuck.

Karkat wrapped the cover of the bed around him, gnawing at it. He let his frustration bubble up as his sharp teeth ripped through the pitiful materials. Fuck, he was too frustrated now to worry about whether the humans would be mad about that or not. He just wanted it over, just wanted it to end, just done, he just wanted to be back on Alternia, as shitty as that place was.

Karkat liked to pretend that the cover was an enemy, so he could at least feel victorious about ripping something. Small growls rumbled out of his throat as he wriggled around.

Then he noticed that the light outside of the block was gone.

Fuck yes.

Karkat peeked outside, seeing no humans. 

Fuck.

Yes.

Karkat gingerly pressed the foot of his uninjured leg to the wooden floor, wincing as it made a small creaking. He pressed his foot to the floor in multiple areas, testing for where it creaked. The. He took a step forward. 

Progress.

He was making a mental map. A mental map of where everything creaked, and the best path to take. The creaks seemed particularly loud in the silence, but no humans stirred. For once, Karkat was glad. Glad that humans had such weird sleeping patterns. Even though the Earth sun wasn’t as harsh as the Alternian one, it could still be hot. And bright. But Karkat wasn’t complaining.

As he mapped out routes to places around the hive he didn’t know (his head was tilted down to his feet, watching to make sure he didn’t slip of some shit), Karkat began to get anxious. The darkness was weird. The hive was weird. The humans were weird.

“What are you doing?”

Karkat froze. Fucking froze.

He hadn’t heard a human.

He slowly turned around, seeing a figure standing in the darkness. It turned on a light, so now he could see the figure clearly.

They were kinda like the Dave human but also not. They had the strange, white hair like the other two humans Karkat had seen, and had the same, emotionless face like the Dave human. They wore shades like the other, but they were of a different shape; a triangular shape rather than what the Dave human had. Their hair was kind of the same, but more spiky and strange.

The most defining feature of this human was that they were absolutely terrifying.

Karkat felt trapped in their gaze, finding it hard to stop himself from trembling (that was so embarrassing, what the fuck). The human stared with those strange shades, mouth not moving and giving no single sign of emotion. Nothing to let Karkat now that they were even alive.

Breathing starting to become ragged, Karkat looked at the way back. If he was fast, he could make it.

“I asked you a question,” The human said, voice monotone.

Karkat tried to say something, “f-f...fuuu...”

Then he ran, at least, as fast as he could with his stupid legs. He darted past the human and into the block that he’d been place in, quickly shutting the way out. Holy shit.

He practically flung himself onto the bed and wrapped the covers around him, because holy shit.

This was all too much to handle. There was too much shit going on, and not enough time for Karkat to process, and he was trying to listen out for the human, and he was...scared. He wasn’t sure if the human would come to harm him. He wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on. He wasn’t sure where Terezi was or where to go or what to do.

Holy shit.

With nothing else to do, Karkat closed his eyes, huddling into the covers.

He tried to pretend that he could make sense of everything and feel safe.

**Author's Note:**

> sjsdhehe enjoy. this is my first time tryin to write homestuck stuff.


End file.
